


Make Something Of This

by Winterling42



Category: Cinderbrush (Web Video), Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Kissing, Other, Pre-Canon, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:07:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22749850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterling42/pseuds/Winterling42
Summary: "If you want to make a thing of it, I'll make a thing of it""Yeah, I'd like that"during the worst summer of Cameron's life, he makes an unexpected friend.
Relationships: Cameron Solomon/Jamie Wrenly
Comments: 21
Kudos: 253





	Make Something Of This

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to go ahead and HC that the characters are seniors? which makes them 17-18, but I'm gonna tag for underage just to be safe.

Cam could never quite remember if it was Jamie who talked first, or him. 

They were both standing by the bleachers, the fifth week into the worst summer ever. Cam had his gym bag full of gear over one shoulder, his hands wrapped too tightly around the strap. Jamie was smoking something that was _probably_ just nicotine in the flimsy shade of the seats, wearing their velvety coat despite the lingering summer heat.

"Well?" Jamie asked abruptly, though they had been doing their best to ignore each other. "Are you going in or not?" Cam jumped, then pretended he'd just been reaching up to run a hand through his hair, trying desperately not to show how fast his heart was beating. He'd never spoken three words to Jamie Wrenly, though they knew each other. Or knew _of_ each other--from parties, anyway. Kids like him didn't talk to kids like Jamie. Unless they wanted something. 

"Oh, uh. Of course, yeah. Course I am." Cam looked back at the gym building, where the football team was already starting to assemble for a camp demo. He could see Jason Buckner giving some freshman a noogie, could hear the laughter and excitement lapping at the edges of the field...but he didn't want to step into it. There were too many voices there already--what if he accidentally responded to one that was only in his head? 

"It doesn't really look like it." Jamie tilted their head to one side, eyes invisible behind their trademark red sunglasses. Cam swallowed nervously, rearranged his hands on the bag strap. He opened his mouth to say something (he wasn't at all sure what it was going to be) but Jamie interrupted-- "Oh, fuck it. Come on." They dropped their cigarette with a strangely graceful gesture and ground it out beneath a black combat boot before heading back towards the school parking lot. About twenty feet away they glanced over their shoulder. "You _do_ have a car, don't you?" 

Cam was still standing in the shadow of the bleachers, totally _not_ hiding from the team. He stared blankly at the weirdo for a second before saying, "Yeah." And with no small amount of relief, he trotted to catch up. 

***

His Barracuda didn't have AC, so they sped through town with the windows down, Cam glancing over every now and then to see Jamie holding on to their big black hat with one hand, pointing imperiously at the next intersection. It was too loud to really talk, but then, what would they say? Cam didn't even know where they were going. 

They were going to the quarry. Just outside the turn that took them to the main gate, Jamie put their hand down and leaned their chin on it instead, humming something tuneless under their breath. Despite the sunglasses, he knew they were looking at him out of the corners of their eyes. 

"Don't suppose you know the best way to sneak in?" they asked, so softly Cam could barely hear them over the idling engine. 

Cam stared back with a frown, more confused than anything. "What's worth sneaking in for?" 

He was completely surprised by Jamie's sudden smile, a chuckle that was almost a full laugh. It was like seeing a rainbow in the middle of a thunderstorm--completely unexpected, startlingly bright. 

"Trust me when I say it's something good," Jamie said, still smiling. 

"Alright." Cam didn't take the turn to the main entrance--that wouldn't count as _sneaking_ , would it? Instead, he swerved left up through the scrubby hills that surrounded the area, finding half-familiar dirt roads that he hadn't needed since he was a kid trying to impress his friends. There was a spot, hidden by an outcropping of rock, that the fence had been cut and held together with some baling wire. It opened up onto an overlook of basically the whole place--Cam had first found it when he was like ten, pretending the whole world was his to command. Some Lion King bullshit. 

Jamie made a surprised and delighted noise at the sight of the fence, helping Cam to twist open the wire that held it mostly shut and slipping through without catching their coat on the sharp edges. "What a handy little secret," they said, looking over the car half-hidden behind a cottonwood tree. "I'm almost glad I brought you." 

"Brought me _where_?" Cam asked, wiping sweat from his forehead. Just being outside in this heat was enough to cook a person. "There's just fucking, rocks, or whatever." 

Jamie tapped the side of their nose and lowered their glasses enough for Cam to see them wink. "Not everything is as it seems, Mr. Solomon," they said, and turned sharply on one heel to head off into the quarry. Cam blew out a sigh, glancing back towards the car. He could still make the end of the camp day if he left now. 

Instead, he trudged after the billowing red coat, wishing he'd brought a baseball cap or something. 

***

That first time they went to the hideout, it was just a corner of a disused quarry pit covered with a piece of corrugated metal. Jamie beckoned Cam to help pull it aside, and in the little cubby hole was a _lot_ of weird stuff. Not just melted pillar candles covering every flat surface (and some that weren't completely flat) or weird symbols drawn in black paint, but also real chemistry gear, like, stuff Cam hadn't seen outside of a lab. 

Jamie glanced back, like they were measuring Cam's reaction, but honestly...this wasn't the worst thing Cam had seen, even if he only counted real life. He just shrugged and followed them into the tiny cave, made even smaller by all of the candles. "Cool place," he said, like he visited occult hideouts all the time. He put his hands in his jean pockets so he wasn't tempted to touch anything. 

"Yeah," Jamie said, wrinkling their nose like they weren't sure Cam was being truthful. "Home sweet home." They looked away, busying themself with what looked vaguely like some kind of altar at the back of the cave. 

When they turned around again, it was with two pills in their hand. "I'm not in the business of being charitable," they said, light flashing off their sunglasses, "But I _am_ in the business of...lending a hand. You look like you need to take your mind off something." 

"Uhhh..." Cam hesitated, craning a little to catch a glimpse of Jamie's eyes. "What is this?" 

"Think of it as a favor," Jamie said, tilting their head again. Like a bird...or a cat watching a mouse. "You can owe me one." 

"Okay but I meant like, what's actually in this, though." Cam tried for his best football star grin. It was a little worn around the edges, maybe, but a solid effort. 

Jamie laughed again and pulled their glasses a little further down to inspect the pills. "Just some ketamine. Literally, a chill pill." This time, when they held it out, Cam took it and swallowed without question.

***

Partly it was because Cam knew his way around the quarry, and partly because he had a car (until he didn't), Jamie invited him out to the hideout several more times over the rest of the summer. They would hang out, get high, and make up cloud animals until it got dark. Then Cam would drive them home, pretend he wasn't looping his own subdivision three times, and go back to his house. 

There was one weekend, right before school started, that things changed. That Cam changed things. He and Jamie were sitting in the shade of the sheet metal cover, having propped it on a loose rock to make a sort of lean-to. They were both sitting on Cam's letterman jacket, because it was too fucking hot to wear it. Jamie claimed to be 'testing new product,' and they'd been passing a thin plastic vape pen back and forth for the past half hour. Cam knew he was high--that the feelings of peace and well-being were temporary at best, but for now everything seemed...fine. Better than fine! 

"Hey," he said, turning over to look at Jamie. "Hey, you know something?"

"What do I know?" Jamie asked lazily, turning on their best fang-bearing smile. Cam was undeterred. 

"You make me feel _safe_ ," Cam said, like he was declaring a national holiday. 

Jamie only laughed. "That would be the drugs, dear." 

"No, not just..." Cam knew fucking better than to use the 'f' word (friend) around Jamie--they would only get prickly and try to leave. "I can tell you stuff. That I can't tell other people. People." That word was fun. 

Jamie finally turned to face him, their expression almost...confused. "Oh, you shouldn't trust me, Cameron. Never trust someone like me." 

"I don't," Cam said, because that seemed to be the correct answer. He floundered forward, unconcerned. "I just...you're cool, man. I think you're cool."

Jamie smiled again, but there was no feeling in it. Amazing how an expression like that could mean exactly the opposite of what it looked like. "That would also be the drugs." 

Cam shook his head. He wasn't explaining this right, at all. He ran a hand through his hair a couple times, hoping to make words fall out. Jamie took a pull on the pen and looked away, breathing out a thin cloud of strange-smelling smoke. 

Recklessly, impulsively, Cam leaned over and put his mouth on Jamie's. He caught the very edges of the smoke, could taste something harsh like sage on his tongue. Jamie flinched back, a little, sucking in a quick breath. Cam could _almost_ see their eyes through their red lenses, dark and flicking around wildly. 

"I'm sorry man, I'm sorry," Cam tried to pull away, but he'd overbalanced to get there and ended up half-falling into their lap. "I just...fuck." He'd fucked it up, _again_. Cameron Solomon, king of the screw-ups. He wondered how long it was gonna take before everyone at school realized just how messed up he was, and kicked him out for it.

Besides Jamie. Because they _knew_ how fucked up he was, and they didn't seem to care. 

Cam pulled himself back to his spot against the rock, leaning his cheek on the cool(er) stone. Jamie was still looking at him, their hands unusually still. 

"Did you just kiss me?" they asked, and Cam nodded without lifting his head from the rock. "Why?" 

That one word had some kind of power in it. It was harsh, almost ringing, but to Cam it felt almost like relief. Because it was just one voice, attached to a person he knew, and it wasn't trying to make him _do_ something. It was just asking. 

"Because I think you're really cool, and I maybe like hanging out with you." Cam felt his cheeks get hot and pressed harder into the stone. "I dunno, man, it was dumb." 

"Okay," Jamie said, half to themself. "I guess we're doing _this_ now." And they pulled Cam back for another kiss. 

A much _better_ kiss. Jamie was all pressure and teeth, somehow even clumsier than Cam at finding a good angle. Cam had the experience, though (only with Sasha), so he reached out and lifted Jamie into his lap without thinking about it. Again Jamie went super still when he touched them, half-frozen on top of his outstretched legs. Without moving away, so that Cam could feel each word against his lips, they said, "Is this okay?" 

Cam huffed impatiently and bent his knees so that the two of them were thrown together, running his hands across the smooth/rough velvet of their coat. "Duh, if it wasn't I wouldn't be _doing_ it. God." 

They made out for what felt like _ages_ , like the world could have ended and Cam wouldn't have noticed. The sun whirled lower, the clouds were high and thin. He could see the painfully bright blue of the sky behind the edges of Jamie's kool-aid dyed hair (hat abandoned somewhere inside the hideout). None of it seemed urgent, really, not like it had with Sasha where escalation was the only thing stopping them from burning up. Kissing Jamie was more...exploratory, like Cam couldn't have said what he wanted until it _happened_ and he was like _oh shit_. They didn't have sex, or even get past second base really. Maybe that was whatever the fuck was in that pen (Cam definitely _didn't_ keep it up, even if they'd _wanted_ to, which he didn't know for sure...) but maybe it just...wasn't time. 

It got cold pretty immediately after the sun set, cold enough for him to want his jacket back. Reluctantly, Jamie peeled themself away and went to put out their candles, closing up shop while Cam crawled out from the lean-to and shook the rock dust off his jacket. He was still a little buzzed as they put the sheet metal back over the entrance, wincing away from the heat on his hands. Neither of them said anything, and Cam couldn't tell if it was because he was scared or because they didn't _need_ to.

The careful silence continued all the way to Jamie's house. Cam kept his window rolled down, the chilly night air at least pretending to help him sober up. It wasn't until he pulled up outside the darkened windows of Jamie's double-wide that they said, "Well." 

They said it like it was the beginning of a sentence, but then nothing else came out. 

"Well." Cam agreed. He ran his hands over the steering wheel instead of putting them through his hair. "See you at school?" 

Jamie turned to him, and in the dark the white flash of their teeth was almost alarming. "Yeah. Let's do that. I'll see you at school." They slid out of the car without another word, slamming the door behind them. 

It didn't feel like something breaking, for once. 

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on tumblr at [critical-ramblings](https://www.critical-ramblings.tumblr.com)!


End file.
